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Monday, 28 November 2011

Skunks are funny because of their means of defense. As well all know an angry or frightened skunk will spray their target with a foul smelling substance. They can do this about five times before having to wait a few days while their body produces more. As such they only use this as a last defense. Lucky for my wife who has encountered them several times on our deck stealing cat food.

Friday, 25 November 2011

When I got up this morning, there was a strange, rather dirty, stuffed toy in the kitchen. It was smooth nylon rather than fuzzy and about 15 cm long—a toy whale. I had never seen it before. I picked it up. It was dirty enough to be part of the jetsam in the nearest parking lot and weighted only a few ounces.

Hypothesis: one of our two youngest cats brought it in from outside. Reasoning: they carry toy balls around the house. Sometimes I find toy balls out in the yard. The young cats bring in earthworms, mice, rats, and birds. Someone has brought in strips of stretchy window caulking, as well. Until the young cats learned to use the cat door, nobody brought in earthworms or caulking or any other inanimate objects.

In the coldest winter, many animals die because of the cold. But porcupines, seeing the situation, were smart enough to group together. By doing so they covered themselves from the cold although their quills wounded each other. After a while they started distancing themselves from one another and they began to freeze. So they had to make a choice: accept the quills of their buddies or disappear from the face of this earth. Wisely, they decided to come back together. Living with the little wounds that were caused by the close relationship, they were able to survive the cold.

Moral of the story:
The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but is when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person’s good qualities.

Thursday, 24 November 2011

The armadillo is native to both North America and South America, although only one species of Armadillo is found in the United States. The average armadillo measures around 75cm in length, including the tail but the giant armadillo can grow to more than 1.5m long and the miniature pink fairy armadillo (the smallest armadillo species) only gets to around 10cm in length. There are around 20 species of armadillo still existent on the American continent with the nine-banded armadillo being the only species found outside of the South American tropics. The armadillo has a hard outer shell and can curl up into a ball leaving no soft body parts exposed to danger (a bit like a woodlouse). The armadillo also has long claws which the armadillo uses for digging burrows and hunting for insects in the earth. Despite the armadillo\'s odd shape, most armadillos can also reach a top speed of nearly 30 mph so can easily outrun most jungle predators. The primary predators of the armadillo are bears, wolves, wildcats and cougars.

The above photo is funny considering sloths are known for being extremely slooooow creatures. So, the joke goes, "How long did it take the sloth to cross the road?"

What's far funnier is this serious video about potty training orphan sloths. Did you know that sloths only come down from their treehouses once a week to go to their version of the bathroom? The base of the tree seems to be their place of choice.

Believe it or not, these kind folks at this sloth refuge, The Aviarios del Caribe sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica, are working to teach orphan sloths the basics of just how to go about being a sloth. The refuge folks want to release these sloths back into the wild but can't until the little animals learn their potty training.

Check out how filmmaker Lucy Cooke documented the life at this sloth orphanage - and everything you need to know about how to potty train your baby sloth like the expression they get on their face before or after doing their "business." You can follow Cooke on Twitter: amphib_avenger. She has plenty more cute baby sloth photos and video for you to enjoy. Visit her blog too: The Amphibian Avenger.

Oh, and the "Sloth Federation" (probably headed up by Stephen Colbert or other irreverent folk) asks us to quit with the "You are so lazy you are slothful" jokes. Sloths need respect too.

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